Jul 17 – Amos 5 Romans 4:1-15 Psalm 86:1-10

Amos 5:21-24

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 

Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 

It’s strange to hear God say He hates their feasts. After all, they were God’s command.

God had planted Israel as a light to the nations. He’d said to Abraham that the world would be saved through his descendants. Israel was to be God’s shining light.

They were to show the rest of the world what God’s people should look like.

But here we see them lost in the process of worship. So focused on their religious feats – so focused on their meeting times that they show no concern for what is going on in the world around them.

You can be in a position where the church meetings are amazing – the music is perfect, the preaching solid and everyone is having a great time.

We can get the meeting right. We can be singing with all the passion we have. But what is going on in the world around us?

Not only is God not impressed with their meetings – he hates them. We won’t accept what they are giving even though what they are giving is good.

They seem on the surface to be doing so well and God is saying, guys you don’t get it. How can I be happy with your worship when you ignore the needs in your society?

Good songs don’t necessarily mean good worship. Neither does good meetings. Neither does going home on a high.

I don’t want to undermine these things, but if our lives don’t match up to it, then it’s not worth squat.

He values our lives more than our singing. He values our love for justice more than the words we can give him.

We cannot worship God with one hand in the air and neglect the needs of people who were suffering with the other.

This is a real challenge. What do we do to stand up for those who are hurting?

I’m not saying that God is only listening if you get involved with the food bank. That’s making our faith all about works and that’s not right. I’m not trying to raise the standard to impossible.

But it’s a question of where your heart is. Is it on the things you care about or the things God does? The question is not are you changing the world, but do you have a heart after Gods?

He is a God of Love. How can we be a true worshipper and not be loving? Jesus was moved by compassion. Do you feel and show compassion?

Real worship has to be intertwined with justice AND goodness.

Hands lifted high before God should not be hands that hit your wife. The voice that praises God should not be vulgar and hurtful. Knees that bow before the father should not be crawling home after getting plastered.

In 1 John 2:11 it says – But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

You cannot hate from the same heart that you adore God with. Jesus said, you hate – you’re a murderer. Not a worshipper.

It seems so obvious, but we can’t compartmentalise our lives like that. We can’t separate parts of who we are.

And the thing is, Israel probably didn’t even notice they were missing it. I suspect for the most part, we don’t notice either.